Category Archives: Books and Magazines

Celts and Roman Britain – Children’s Historical Fiction

Children's books, Children's fiction, History Books, , , , ,

There is an abundance of stories about Roman Britain, many focusing on the Celts versus Romans theme.

For younger readers:

Older children:

  • Song for a Dark Queen by Rosemary Sutcliff
  • Outcast by Rosemary Sutcliff
  • The Capricorn Bracelet by Rosemary Sutcliff
  • Heather, Oak, and Olive; Three Stories by Rosemary Sutcliff
  • The Mark of the Horse Lord by Rosemary Sutcliff
  • The Eagle of the Ninth (The Roman Britain Trilogy) by Rosemary Sutcliff
  • Frontier Wolf by Rosemary Sutcliff
  • The Silver Branch (The Roman Britain Trilogy) by Rosemary Sutcliff

    More to come…

Factual Children’s Books – Celtic or Iron Age Britain

Books and Magazines, Children's books, History Books, Learning, , , ,
Celtsceltsusborne (Usborne Beginners) by Leonie Pratt
A simple introduction for younger children. A bright, well-illustrated, clear book for younger children and beginner readers.
onthetrailceltsOn the Trail of the Celts in Britain by Peter Chrisp (Franklin Watts)
This book looks at Iron Age Great Britain (not Ireland) through the archaeological evidence, featuring sites and finds. As a result it focuses on types of buildings – and is really good at showing the diversity of building types – whether in it be hill-forts, roundhouses in wood or stone, crannogs or brochs. There are also spreads on farming, chalk figures, religion, burying the dead and human sacrifice.It rounds up with information about the Roman invasion, and the long term survival of Celtic languages.
There is a glossary, and timeline. And unsurprisingly for a book based on archaeological sites, a list of places to visit.
The pages use large scale photographs of the archaeological finds, and sites including reconstructions such at Butser Ancient Farm. The text is fairly large, and flows well over the pages. It makes good use of maps to show sites.
historydetectiveceltsThe History Detective Investigates: The Celts by Philip Steele
This books starts with a wider look geographical look at Celts, starting with different ‘Celtic’ peoples across Europe and the origins of the this cultural group. 
It then focuses on British Celtic people, looking at everyday life – rulers, war, clothes, homes, food, metalworking, religion. It then looks what happened when the Romans came and the impact of their leaving. It discusses how we know about the Celts, and has several ideas of projects. It rounds off with a Glossary, answers to the questions and further sources of informaiton. 

Pages are packed with information. Though good size photographs feature too. Box outs are used to personalise the text with quotes, and for ideas for Detective Work – things to think about or do. Some pages have a question to follow up on. 

This series aims to provide a starting point for further thinking, and projects.
by Philip Steele (Author)

British Iron Age / Celts – Children’s Historical Fiction

Children's books, Children's fiction, History, History Books, , , , ,

There is very little historical fiction on the Iron Age before the coming of the Romans.

  • sunhorsemoonhorseSun Horse, Moon Horse by Rosemary Sutcliff
    Unusually this is set in Iron Age before the Romans. Although the story is concerned with inter-tribal warfare, the drama comes less from this, and more from the tension between the practical world of the warrior and and the spiritual world of the artist.
    Lubrin Dhu is the third son of the chief, and sees the world differently to others, through artist’s eyes. This is a bittersweet, story of friendship, duty and sacrifice in a tribal culture devoted to the horse.
    It is written in Rosemary Sutcliff’s signature poetic style. It is a shorter story than many of her books, and as a result makes a good introduction to Rosemary Sutcliff’s work for those unused to her style – descriptive language and long sentences.

 

 

More children’s historical fiction set in the bronze age (we haven’t read these yet)

Many of the stories from this period are viewed through Irish and Welsh mythology – the surviving tales written down in medieval times.

The Ulster Cycle:

Cornish Mythology:

 

Picture Book Month 2014

Children's books, Children's fiction,

PBMLOGO-COLOR_WEBRES

Each November celebrates Picture Book Month.
On the Picture Book Month website, and through its email newsletter you can find out about many different people’s ideas for why picture books are important.

Here though I’d like to share some of our favourite picture books based on the topics in this year’s Picture Book Month calendar.

Elephants

Kidogo: The Littlest Elephant

by Anik McGrory

Many picture books feature a character in the form of an animal, but that are in essence people. We on the other hand have a fondness of picture books about animals, that mostly show the animals as themselves.  Hence our love of the Nature Storybooks.
Kidogo is somewhere in between. A little elephant who feels dwarfed by the world around him. We particularluy love the trail of interesting savannah animals he meets on his way.

See Kidogo on Amazon

bashiBashi, Elephant Baby

by Theresa Radcliffe (Author), John Butler (Illustrator)

The story of a newborn elephant’s first days in the wild. Always great to find a book that reflects the real life stories of an animal. We haven’t yet read this one, but we really enjoy The Snow Leopard, by the same author and illustrator. The images are beautiful, really evoking the landscape and a close intimacy with the animal itself. John Butler’s illustrations are definitely in the realm of wildlife artist and they really stand out for their detail, and character.

See more of John Butler’s work
See Bashi, Elephant Baby on Amazon

thunderfootLittle Elephant, Thunderfoot

by Sally Grindley (Author), John Butler (Illustrator)

Another animal story beautifully illustrated by John Butler. This time written by Sally Grindley. Newborn Thunderfoot starts to explore his world, getting to grips with everyday family life. But his herd faces tragedy. This book deals with issues of death and poaching.
See more of John Butler’s work
See Little Elephant, Thunderfoot  on Amazon

Travel

offtomarketOff to Market

by Elizabeth Dale (Author) and Erika Pal (Illustrator)

This year in the library we discovered this charming picture book about a bus journey in Africa.
The bus is off to market today. Everyone wants to get on. The pictures are full of lively little details, and we had great fun spotting all the different people, and things getting on the bus. It is a morality tale about how taking the initiative and helping others can overcome problems.

See Off to Market on Amazon

Eyewitness Guides

Children's books, History Books, Nature Books,

Whenever we are looking at a topic I find that I end up looking to see if there is an Eyewitness book (or Eyewitness Guide) on the subject, and if I see one in a charity shop then I will inevitably buy it. Though it has to be said that at least so far this is far more for my benefit than my daughters’.

This series covers a wide range of subjects. They successfully walk a fine line between being very visual and being very detailed. The spreads break up information into one main section. And the rest of the page features bite-size text and lots of photographs, often of artefacts. With over 60 pages these books go into lots of detail of different aspects of the topic covered.

We recommend these for adults getting to grips with a subject and for older children. For younger children (pre-teen) we find that they are too detailed, unless a child has a particular passion for the subject. They might however suit a visual child, or one with a particular interest in physical things at a younger age.

List of Eyewitness Books on DK website

Ottoman Empire resources

History, History Books, ,

Here I’ve gathered a few links to resources on the Ottoman Empire

Online Resources

Books

Factual

Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Istanbul (Cities through time), by Robert Bator (Author), Chris Rothero (Illustrator)

There isn’t much available on Ottomans and Istanbul, but this is a great book. It is packed with information charting the history of the city Byzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul.
It is aimed at older children, and confident readers, but we found it an informative reference for adults, and accessible enough to read parts out to younger children, for whom the whole book would have been too much. It has sections of fairly dense text, but this is balanced out by large, beautiful illustrations. Includes a timeline.
It is comprehensive, with recounting key events in the city’s history, and with lots of details of daily life.

Fiction

Children’s Historical Fiction – Ottoman Empire 

Children’s Historical Fiction – Ottoman Empire

Books and Magazines, Children's books, Children's fiction, History Books, Learning, , , , ,

Although one of the world’s longest running and most powerful empires we haven’t found much on the Ottoman Empire. But we have found a couple of gems.

Abraham Hannibal and the Battle For the Throne

Frances Mary Somers Cocks (Author), Eric Robson (Illustrator)

The second book in the Abraham Hannibal series, this quirky,  fascinating book explores life as a slave gardener in the palace of the Ottoman Sultan in the early 1700s.

Read full review of Abraham Hannibal 

LeylaBlackTulipLeyla: The Black Tulip (Girls of Many Lands)

Alev Lytle Croutier (Author)

Set in 1720′s this charts the story of a young girl tricked into slavery and taken to the Sultan’s palace in Istanbul, the heart of the Ottoman Empire.

Read full review of Leyla

 

Other books we haven’t read:

Leyla: The Black Tulip

Children's books, Children's fiction, History, History Books, , ,

LeylaBlackTulip

Leyla: The Black Tulip (Girls of Many Lands)

By Alev Lytle Croutier

Set in 1720’s this charts the story of a young girl tricked into slavery and taken to the Sultan’s palace in Istanbul, the heart of the Ottoman Empire.
We really enjoyed the way the book balances the hardships of slavery with the security and opportunity of the harem. Leyla is desperately poor and the harem provides her with a living, but at the price of her freedom and family. It manages to avoid the harem cliché of women competing for the sultans’s favours and focuses on the ordinary everyday life of women in harem. It glosses over the reality of the eunuchs, but with enough details to make it realistic enough for those with some understanding – a cleverly balanced line that allows for further examination of these issues, or not, depending on your own judgement.  The authors’ expertise on the harem shines through. The focus on the gardens and the tulip provide another layer of historical interest that gives the book an additional flavour.
See on Amazon

 

North American Native American Factual Books

Children's books, History, History Books, , , ,

We have been exploring some of the cultures across North America before the arrival of Europeans in sixteenth century. Here are some the factual books we have found:

MegaBitesNativeAmericans

See on Amazon

DK MegaBites Native Americans: An inside look at the tribes and traditions By Laura Buller

One of our favourite factual book on the subject.

Although pocket size it covered pretty much everything we needed to get a good over view of the diversity of Native North Americas, and how environments across the continent shaped the cultures that lived and continue to live there. It strikes a nice balance between the generalisations needed to start to gain an understanding of a subject and showing the diversity of the continent and people.

The first few chapters look at themes – beliefs, daily life, crafts etc. Each of the cultural regions are then tackled in turn. We would have preferred to see Subarctic as a region in itself rather than combined with Arctic, but that is just nit-picking. Each starts with setting the scene for the region. Then goes on the discuss the way of life, and a bit about the impact of the coming of the Europeans (and the horse).  Taken together these regions show a wide range of environments, ways of life and the different ways European arrival affected the people of North America.

The book also has handy links to websites, a timeline, regional tribe list and glossary.

americanindianswolfson

See on Amazon

American Indians (My First Book of…) By Evelyn Wolfson

This is a really easy to read, very accessible book. It starts with a nice big colour map of the different cultural regions and highlights the diversity of cultures and the link between environment and ways of life. The second spread talks about the lives of children. Then it looks at the lives and traditions of four tribes – the Iroquois, the Cherokee, the Sioux and the Hopi.

The book is very simplified. It would make a good first book on the subject. But for our purposes it lacked the breadth and historical detail (the Sioux are only discussed after the coming of the horse). It also shows Native Americans in the modern world.

DKEyewitnessNorthAmericanIndian

See on Amazon

North American Indian (DK Eyewitness Books) By David Hamilton Murdoch

Like the other books in this series North American Indian has great photography, in particular of artefacts – of the things created and used by different people across the continent.

The focus is very much on the past – the traditional ways of life, with only a single page on modern, and relatively brief information on post-European contact history.

It is divided into cultural regions – with one or more spreads devoted to a region, or aspect of a region. Read about the Eyewitness Guides Series

Native Americans (Build it Yourself) By Kim Kavin (Nomad Press)

This feels quite differnt to the other books reviewed here – monochrome, and makes great use of different fonts to highlight keywords, prompt questions and pull out interesting facts. It starts with chapters on the first Americans, and the early Archaic period. Then covers different cultural regions in six chapters, and finishes up with a chapter on the what happened when the Europeans arrived. Includes projects with things to make and do. Aimed at ages 9-12.

More children’s books on native Americans:

World History Reference

Books and Magazines, Children's books, History, History Books, Learning, ,

It took ages to choose a world history reference book, and am really pleased with the one we have. And it turns out it is a less well known book, rather than one of the big publishers.

A good reference book forms the backbone for studying history, not only do they provide information but they also provide a starting point from which to branch out in search of other books, Youtube videos, documentaries and crafts.

History of the World

See on Amazon

Our favourite World History reference book is:

History of the World: 4 Million Years to the Present Day

Published by Bounty Books

What drew me to this book in the first place was the apparent coverage and the layout. We were doing ancient history and having trouble finding anything on the Phoenicians, despite their importance to the development of the ancient Mediterranean world. But here we found a good half page covering the basics. Over time most of what we have chosen to look at (we tend to explore the less travelled path) has been covered to some degree by the book – whether it be a small box-out on Great Zimbabwe or a double spread on the Thirty Year’s war, and Suleiman the Magnificent.

The illustrations are attractive, and full of people. The timeline on most pages helps to fill in details, and place events in time. I really like the way the pages make use of illustrations, captions and boxouts. Some pages are thematic, and revisited through the book as time progresses. The text is quite accessible, and not too complex for my daughter, but with enough details to be a good starting point for further research.

You might also try:

I would really love to hear about your favourite World History reference book.
Which one do you use and what do you like about it?